The Steiner Survey Buzz

Over the last week or so, I've been getting nasty calls from several stock analysts saying I'm getting soft on eBay and even my friend Brian over at ComparisonEngines  accused me of being so infatuated with Google that I'm not  following eBay! 

They are all giving me the business because on Sept 17th, Ina Steiner released the results of the AuctionBytes survey.

I did see this and read it closely.  Why didn't I blog about it?  Well, to me it wasn't really news that sellers are a) disenfranchised with eBay (I like Ina's word - Malaise) and b) going multichannel as fast as their businesses will allow.

I admit this was probably an oversight and many readers are interested in this topic as they aren't as far into the trend as I assume.  So here goes.

Ina's survey was completed by over 1000 (1225) readers.  There was a mix of small and large sellers (I don't understand Ina's math on that mix, but I'd guess maybe 100/200 top sellers -$50k/m+, the rest smaller - 50k/yr types).

Probably the most controversial datapoint is the "where do you sell now and where will you sell in 6 months" question.  As you can see from the figure below, eBay has a 92% "sell here now" and then it drops to 38% for the 6 month time.  Overstock and amazon pick up the most respondents.

We'll never know what's going on here exactly, are 60% of these people really going to stop selling on eBay?  My guess is no, but they used this survey to express their eBay angst and to also let the world know they are spreading their wings and checking out other sites.

A later question showed a similar ding on eBay where 658 (56%) use eBay stores now and that number dips to 243 (21%) for 6 months (net loss of 415 - about 30% of respondents are leaving ebay stores).

One last section that I thought was interesting - seller's top concerns:
1. Fees
2. Fraud (not clear if this is buyer fraud, or all fraud on ebay that hurts the marketplace in general or seller fraud)
3. non-paying bidders/UPI/deadbeats
4. payment services
5. sourcing

Translation: sellers have lots of product to sell, but the fees, fraud and NPB/feedback system and paypal are getting in the way of their success.

Conclusion: As we've been reporting here, a large population of sellers aren't happy with eBay's fee changes and buyer issues that net out as lower ASPs and conversions.  They are ripe for the picking from competitors like Amazon, Overstock and of course Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.

(Ok Brian I'm clear to write about google for the next week!)

Comments

[Jennifer]

Like how Dyscern sells scratched units and claims it's simply cosmetic. Basically they threaten and bully people into retracting their negative feedback. They have had 700 mutually withdrawn negative comments. I've never had a bad experience until I encountered them. I've been on ebay for years.

[Bill O'Malley]

What the survey is telling the world is that the sellers on eBay are fed up with the BS that is constantly expounded from the management. They are constantly playing with site, adding new toys, enhancing this and that and basically creating chaos among its sellers. The management should be working on upgrading the existing site, bring it up to modern day standards instead of costantly throwing curve balls at the sellers.
When you have a business you start off with a plan and then you work on that plan to implement it into what it is you are trying to sell so you can get things rolling smoothly and seamlessly. By doing all these changes and raising the fees at their whim they are forcing sellers to throw out their plan and start over again. The sellers will not put up with all of this crap for much longer and are actively seeking other venues because they need stability. If they can not get the comfort of stability by running their own business they might as well work for some one else. The raise in the fees to most of us does not mean much since many of us like myself have a decent turnover in our stores with a decent profit margin.
Many of us also have other venues in which we sell. The lack of wanting to do anything with any upgrades which are long over due and the lack of a sense of direction by upper management has many of us worried.
eBay is an electronic mall. Having sold in a mall environment through the years in B&M locations I have seen them rise and fall. A mall has to be easy for the consumer to be able to navigate and find what it is that they are looking for so it has to have convenience. The navigation system has to be set up so that some one can easily use it and not have to be an IT major in order to understand what words to put into the search so that what they want will come up quickly, so it must be simple. The customer wants to know that the items that are selling are genuine and that they will not get ripped of so their must be trust.
When a mall does not have the convenience, the simplicity and the trust of and for the buying consumer they will leave and not come back again. When the buyers leave the stores soon follow. When the stores leave the mall dies and is torn down and replaced with condos. This has been going on for years and it is no different today than it was 40 years ago.
It is a shame what is happening to eBay as I have been on there now for over 7 years but some one better wake up and smell the coffee before it is no longer around.

Bill

[Trevor Ginn]

I thought the survey showed a lack of sophistication by eBay sellers. Whilst the majority said that they were going to leave eBay, there was no increase in the desire to open other online marketing channels. Futhermore the largest group of respondants were collectables traders for whom eBay is by far the best channel.

There seems to be a lot of complaining but very little action.